Ask This: How Good Are The Franchisor’s Training Skills?
September 22, 2014 11:21 am
1 Comment
Training isn’t the only thing a franchisor does, but it is one of the most important things!
A franchisor that fails to transfer knowledge to franchisees is a franchisor to avoid.
Unfortunately, there are more of these franchisors than the public knows.
Rarely will you discover a franchisor that doesn’t have a huge ego. I never fault them for that — I like big egos — but sometimes, as they say in Texas, these franchisors are “all hat and no cattle.” Beware of the franchisor with no (or too few) cattle.
Clever Isn’t Enough
Just because a franchisor is clever enough to develop a new or competing concept, doesn’t mean he or she is a trainer! And that’s where the cattle hit the road.
Why would a franchisee pay a franchisor $15,000 to $75,000 upfront? There are numerous reasons, but one of the most important is this: To learn how to operate the business successfully. And by successfully I mean in a manner that the franchisee finds to be both personally satisfying and profitable.
Franchisors Rarely Admit Weaknesses
And not all franchisors can fulfill that expectation . . . but the bigger the ego, the more difficult it is to admit that they’re not as good as they need to be at training.
It doesn’t help that trainers aren’t considered to be all that special. Many people assume that training doesn’t require extra special skills. Anyone who can read the Operations Manual can lead a training program! That’s the same as saying that anyone who can read a textbook and the publisher’s slides can be a college professor. In that case, we should turn the classrooms over to the students.
But franchisees aren’t going to buy that. (Students shouldn’t either, but they often have no choice).
Before you buy a franchise, test the franchisor’s ability to train effectively. How do you do that? Easy! Ask 10 existing franchisees to rate the franchisor’s training skills.
Categorised in: Buy a Franchise, Buying a franchise, franchise opportunity, Franchise support, Questions to ask to buy a franchise
This post was written by Dr. John Hayes
1 Comment
Thanks for this one – definitely useful information! This is certainly one of the things which has played on my mind when considering getting involved. It seems as though it should be common sense for them to impart as much knowledge as possible since that should yield the highest results for both parties but I have worried that this doesn’t always happen. To canvas opinion is definitely a sensible idea.